[91] FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 



pecial pains with their harpoons and lances, for which instruments they 

 have the greatest regard. The principal implements used by the Makah 

 whalers are harpoons, lances, ropes, and buoys. The harpoon-heads 

 were formerly made of shell, but at present are of sheet copper or steel, 

 with barbs of elk or deer horn, tightly seized to the blades by cords or 

 strips of bark, the whole bpiing covered with spruce gum. The laniards 

 attached to the harpoon are made of the sinews of the whale twisted 

 into a rope and served with fibers of nettle. The lances are made of 

 metal, with sockets for the ends of the poles. The poles for the har- 

 poons and lances are heavy and unwieldy, but durable and strong. The 

 buoys are made of seal skin with the hair inside, inflated when used and 

 attached to the harpoon-laniards. These buoys are used for the double 

 purpose of impeding the progress of the whale, so as to enable the 

 Indians to kill it, and to prevent the animal from sinking when dead. 

 The ropes used in towing whales ashore are made from the tapering limbs 

 of the cedar and the long fibrous roots of the spruce. They are cut in 

 lengths of three or four feet, and roasted or steamed in ashes, a process 

 which renders them tough, pliable, and easy to split. They are then 

 reduced to fine strands with knives, twisted, and made into ropes by 

 being rolled between the palm of the hand and the naked thigh. All 

 w^haling implements that have been used in the capture are regarded 

 with especial favor and handed down from generation to generation, 

 and it is deemed unlucky to part with them. These Indians did not ac- 

 quire the art of whaling from white men, and still employ the apparatus 

 and processes which have come to them through countless generations. 

 One point deserves especial consideration. The process of wrapping 

 their harpoon-laniards, commonly known as " serving," has been in use 

 by all sea-faring men for a number of years. The Makah Indian has 

 his " serving-stick" and mallet, manufactures his twine from the fibers 

 of the nettle, and " serves" his lines as neatly as do the fishermen of the 

 eastern coast, and it is said they were familiar with the process before the 

 advent of the whites. 



The principal articles manufactured by the Makahs are canoes, whal- 

 ing implements, conical hats, bark mats, fishing-lines, fish-hooks, knives, 

 daggers, bows and arrows, dog-hair blankets, &c. Their largest and 

 best canoes are made by the Clyoquots and ISTittiuats on Vancouver 

 Island. Canoes of the medium and small sizes are made by the Makahs 

 from cedar, procured a short distance up the Strait or on the Tseuss 

 Eiver. Before the introduction of iron tools the labor of making canoes 

 was attended with many difficulties, the Indian hatchets being made of 

 stone and the chisels of mussel shells ground to a sharp edge with pieces 

 of sandstone. Naturally it required much time and labor to fell a 

 large cedar, and it was only the wealthy chiefs, owning a number of 

 slaves, that attempted such large operations. The tree was literally 

 chipped away with their stone hatchets, or gnawed down after the fash- 

 ion of beavers. After felling the tree many months Avere consumed in 



